Covenanter Witness Vol. 54 - Rparchives.org

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INTERRUPTIONS
By Rev. Wm. Young, B.A.
One of the things that many of us were checked
for as children was interrupting a conversation. We
were told that we must not do it. No matter how
imporant what we had to say might seem to us, we
had to wait till there was a lull in the conversation.
I think we can see now that our parents were right.
Generally speaking, it is wrong and unmannerly to
interrupt when someone else is talking. None of us
likes to be interrupted ourselves.
Yet there are times when we are glad of an
interruption. When we are listening to, or taking
part in, a conversation that is boring or perhaps
we are glad of an interruption
even embarrassing,
of any kind. There are many conversations that
might be interrupted with profit to all concerned.
None of us who profess to love the Lord should en
courage in any way conversations that are God-dis
honouring and detrimental to the highest welfare of
those who take part in them.
There is a very pleasing interruption in the
parable of the prodigal son. You remember how the
returning prodigal had his speech all ready. He had
thought out carefully what he was going to say to
his father. But he didn't get saying half of it. His
father interrupted him, saying to the servants:
"Bring forth the best robe and put it on him; and
put a ring on his hand and shoes on his feet . .
What a wonderful revelation we have there of the
father's love and forgiveness! That is what God
is like with you and me. When in penitence, we come
with our confession of sin and shame, before we
have told the half, He is speaking to us words of
pardon and peace, How true He is to His promise:
"Before they call I will answer, and while they are
still speaking I will hear."
Other things can be interrupted as well as con
versations. How often the work and routine of our
daily lives is interrupted and how much annoyance
these interruptions sometimes cause us !
An interruption that is very annoying to many
young men nowadays is the two-year period of Na
tional Service. It must be very exasperating when
one has perhaps just finished one's apprenticeship
and has begun to earn a decent wage to have to rise
up and leave it all and go away to the Forces.
There are even less welcome interruptions. How
often our daily work and the daily routine of our
lives is interrupted by such things as illness and
accident ! How often, too, these things seem to come
at the most awkward time at a time when we can
least afford to be laid aside ! Yes, many a one is laid
aside by illness or accident sore against his will.
There are many things that can happen day by
day to interrupt us at our work. How often, for
example, are we interrupted at our work by the ar
rival of a visitor. We have planned a busy day in the
house or office or field as the case may be and then
we get an unexpected visitor and our plans are all up
set and much of our work remains undone.
It is very annoying to have our work and the
routine of our lives interrupted in these ways. And
yet if we believe, as we profess to do, that our lov
ing heavenly Father controls each detail of our
lives and causes all things to work together for our
good, then it follows that He must have a wise and
40
loving
purpose even in the interruptions that come
to us. There can be nothing arbitrary or haphazard
about them. They are His appointment for us and
are intended to serve some useful purpose in our
lives.
Sometimes when our plans are thwarted and
interrupted, it may be that God is seeking to turn
us from something that is not for our good or His
glory. Balaam was doubtless annoyed when his
journey to Balak was interrupted by the seeming
stubbornness of the beast on which he rode. But
there was more to it than Balaam at first realized.
It was the angel of the Lord who stood in the way to
prevent him from blindly continuing in his wayward
self-sought course. God often graciously interrupts
the schemes and plans of men, that He may turn
them from some unworthy
and dangerous course.
I remember once hearing a sermon on the provi
dence of God in the course of which the preacher
said that "sometimes God breaks a man's leg to
keep him from breaking his It was an arrest
ing way of stating this aspect of God's providence.
Many a man, as he looks back over life's way, thanks
God for the illness or accident which interrupted the
routine of his life and kept him from rushing blind
on his way. He realizes that that spell on his back
ly
was a blessing in disguise. It gave him time to think
and to remember life's values. It enables him to con
sider afresh the interests of his immortal soul and
the claims of God upon him.
But what about those interruptions which come
when we are earnestly seeking to do God's will
These, too, have a gracious purpose. That visitor
who upset your plans so badly was perhaps sent by
God that you might minister guidance and comfort
and help. Or perhaps the visitor was God's messenger
and ministering angel to you.
It may be that God interrupts us at what we
are doing because He has got something
more im
portant for us to do. In the eighth chapter of the
Acts, we read how, while Philip was busy preaching
the Gospel in the villages of the Samaritans, the
angel of the Lord told him to go "unto Gaza, which
is desert." It must have seemed strange to him to
be commanded to leave a scene of spiritual activity,
and go to an uninhabited, desolate region.
But, on
obeying the command, Philip had the privilege of
pointing the Ethiopian eunuch to Christ, and so
a whole continent was touched for Christ that day.
The next time, then, that we are inclined to
be annoyed because of some interruption to our work
or our plans, let us try to realize and remember that
God has a wise and loving purpose even in the in
terruptions that come to us. It may help, too, to re
mind ourselves that the Saviour, who was tried in
knew what it was to experience
all points as we are,
interruptions. When He and His disciples had with
drawn for rest, how annoying it must have been for
them to find that the crowds had followed them.
Yet Jesus didn't get annoyed. Instead He ministered
to their needs and as a consequence of that inter
ruption we have the beautiful account of the feeding
of the multitude. Our Divine Master, who thus turn
ed the interruption into blessing, can
help us to do
the same. He can give us grace to overcome our an
noyance and to make the interruption a
blessing to
ourselves and to others.
Death is sometime spoken of as an interruption
COVENANTER WITNESS